Archive of the Future
Joerg Burger / Austria / 2023 / 92 min
The Natural History Museum in Vienna is a vast, labyrinthine archive of meticulously archived records, rare animals and curious stories. A picturesque and wryly humorous film from a veritable Noah's Ark headed for an uncertain future.
They’ve got it all at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. And with ‘Archive of the Future’, the great and proud institution has also got the film that the museum so well deserves. In beautiful images and with an appropriate eye for curious details, we are led through its labyrinthine corridors and enormous archives, where a team of wonderfully nerdy employees can hardly contain their enthusiasm once they get started. But even here – between cabinets, drawers and kilometres of shelves – time does not stand still. The colonial repressions of the past and future eco-crises are pressing in from both sides, and the production of knowledge is in need of an ethical update. With wry humour and a loving eye for incredible detail, this is a film to be enjoyed with both eyes and mind.